(Reuters) - Brazil-based StoneCo Ltd's (O:STNE) shares rose as much as 34.1 percent in their U.S. market debut on Thursday, giving the credit card processor a market value of $8.88 billion.
The company's shares opened at $32, a third above its initial public offering price of $24.
StoneCo sold 50.72 million shares on Wednesday, above the expected price range, raising $1.22 billion in total proceeds, which it expects to use for acquisitions. Stockholders sold 4.9 million shares. (https://
StoneCo has attracted interest from several big-name backers including Jack Ma's Ant Financial, the operator of China's biggest online payment platform, which has agreed to invest $100 million in the IPO, and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc (N:BRKa) which has expressed an interest to buy up to 14.2 million shares.
Berkshire was not immediately available for comment.
The Sao Paulo-based company which serves over 200,000 digital and brick-and-mortar merchants, provides payment processing solutions including point-of-sale machines and payment gateway services.
Madrone Capital Partners, a U.S. investment firm that manages part of the fortune of the Walton family, the majority owners of Walmart Inc (N:WMT), has a 5.3 percent stake in StoneCo's Class A shares, and Tiger Global Management has a 7.1 perent stake in its Class B shares.
StoneCo reported revenue of $164.9 million for the first six months of 2018, nearly double from a year earlier. It earned a profit of $22.7 million, from a loss of $19.7 million in the same period, a year ago.
Another Brazilian credit card processor PagSeguro Digital Ltd (N:PAGS), which competes directly with StoneCo, listed on the New York Stock Exchange in Jan. this year having raised $1.1 billion.
StoneCo's other main competitors include Brazil's largest payment processor Cielo SA (SA:CIEL3), First Data Corporation (N:FDC) and Global Payments Inc (N:GPN), the company said in a filing.
Goldman Sachs & Co (NYSE:GS), J.P. Morgan, and Citigroup (NYSE:C) were the lead joint underwriters for the IPO.